If not, I expected it would at least generate an error when I entered it. The product key for one CD of Windows XP Home should work with any other – remember, it’s the product key you’re purchasing, not just a CD. Like so many of my readers, I’d lost, misplaced, or just didn’t feel like looking for the actual Dell Windows XP Home disk, particularly since I had a old pre-SP1 retail disk (purchased from the Microsoft Company Store) in front of me that I’d never used.
The product key for XP Home that was installed on it is on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Now, here is the only confusing factor: the machine is a Dell, and came with Dells OEM version of Windows XP Home pre-installed. Today I decided that this was the machine to use for a new employee at my wife’s business. I used it as a testbed and installed Ubuntu Linux on it, played with it for a bit, and then left it to sit in a corner. I’d loaned the machine to a friend for a while who’d recently returned it. It came with Windows XP Home pre-loaded from Dell. I have a Dell Latitude 131L that’s perhaps two years old. This time it was me.Īnd after an hour and a half on the phone, I was no further along.Īnd yet, left to my own devices I had the machine activated in about 10 minutes. That question wasn’t posed by just any reader. Windows XP is no longer supported, and it’s very likely that Microsoft will eventually decommission its activation servers. This article is here for historical purposes only.
